Scottish Executive

Anti-Social Behaviour

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether a scheme to impose fixed penalty notices for disorder offences will be piloted and evaluated initially.

Ms Margaret Curran: Part 11 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Bill introduces a power for the police to issue fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for a range of low-level, anti-social and nuisance offences committed by persons aged 16 and over.

  Paragraph 172 of the policy memorandum to the bill, which was published on 30 October, confirms that the Executive plans to pilot the use of FPNs for anti-social offences and that an evaluation of the pilot will be carried out.

  The bill and accompanying documents, including the policy memorandum, can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/bills/index.htm#12.

Anti-Social Behaviour

Brian Adam (Aberdeen North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what support it is providing to local authorities to implement its policies on anti-social behaviour.

Ms Margaret Curran: The Scottish Executive has allocated £30 million over 2004-06 to local authorities to fund community wardens and other community based anti-social behaviour initiatives. In addition, we are making available a further £65 million, over the same period, to tackle anti-social behaviour.

  The Executive has also provided £10 million this year to local authorities to help support the work of local youth justice teams and enable them to improve the range and quality of community based services for young offenders that are available. This will increase to £13 million in 2004-05 and £15 million in 2005-06. Further resources are also available to support local authority implementation of the measures in the Youth Crime Action Plan.

Asthma

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding will be made available to NHS boards to achieve the rapid implementation of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network asthma guidelines.

Malcolm Chisholm: Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guidelines are best practice guidelines primarily for use by clinicians, and are not intended to serve as mandatory standards of medical care. Their implementation is a matter for NHS boards, and any costs would fall to be met from boards' unified budgets.

Asthma

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much money each NHS board has spent on asthma services in each of the last three years.

Malcolm Chisholm: Data are not held centrally on costs associated with specific conditions such as asthma.

Asthma

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many nurses have undergone specialist asthma training in each NHS board in each of the last three years.

Malcolm Chisholm: This information is not held centrally.

Child Protection

Scott Barrie (Dunfermline West) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance has been issued to local authorities in respect of the criteria that should be used when placing or removing a child's name on or from child protection registers.

Euan Robson: Protecting Children: A Shared Responsibility – Guidance on Inter-Agency Co-operation provides guidance to local authorities in respect of the criteria that should be used when placing and removing a child's name on or from child protection registers. The guidance is available on the Scottish Executive website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library/documents-w3/pch-00.htm .

Children

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many children have a supervision order imposed on them, expressed as a percentage of child population, and, of these, how many await allocation of a social worker.

Euan Robson: The most recent published figures are from the annual report 2001-02 of the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA). On 30 June 2001, 1% of Scotland's population of children were subject to a supervision requirement. SCRA will shortly be publishing more up-to-date information in its 2002-03 annual report. Indications are that the figures for the number of children subject to supervision requirements are similar to previous years. Information on allocation of social workers is not held centrally. I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-3930 on 2 December 2003.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:

  http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search

Conservation

Dr Sylvia Jackson (Stirling) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what provision is made in the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Bill to prevent the human disturbance of the communal, non-breeding roosts of species that are listed on schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and Annexe 1 of the EU Birds Directive 79/409/EEC such as white-tailed eagles, red kites, hen harrier and marsh harrier.

Allan Wilson: White-tailed eagles, red kites, hen harriers and marsh harriers are all specially protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The act implements the United Kingdom's principal obligations under the birds directive.

  It is an offence to intentionally kill, injure or take such birds; or to disturb them, or their dependent young, whilst on or near the nest. It is also an offence to take or destroy the eggs of any wild bird. The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Bill further enhances the protection of birds, including by introducing the offence of recklessly committing such acts.

  Extending protection to the communal roost sites of certain species was suggested by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the course of consultation on the draft bill. But I am not aware of any detailed evidence or data to suggest that communal roost sites are under particular threat from human disturbance, or that the level of protection afforded by the new bill is inadequate.

Diabetes

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to Your Local Care: A survey of diabetes services in primary care organisations , what steps will be taken to encourage NHS boards that do not provide designated diabetes clinics to do so.

Malcolm Chisholm: The Scottish Diabetes Framework encourages all providers of services for people with diabetes to improve the care they provide. The Scottish Primary Care Collaborative which was launched earlier this year provides support to primary care to redesign and develop diabetes services.

Diabetes

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to Your Local Care: A survey of diabetes services in primary care organisations , what steps will be taken to bring access to specialist obstetrics services for pregnant women with diabetes or those who develop gestational diabetes up to and beyond the 90% level in England.

Malcolm Chisholm: The Scottish Audit of Pregnancies in Women with Diabetes reports that all consultant-led maternity units in Scotland provide ante-natal care for women with diabetes through multi-disciplinary clinics led by designated obstetricians and physicians. The Dr Foster report Your Local Care was based on incomplete data and many of its conclusions are misleading.

Enterprise

Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many public limited companies have established their registered offices in Scotland as a result of commencing trading in each year from 1990 to 1997.

Mr Jim Wallace: I have asked Claire Clancy the Chief Executive of Companies House to respond. Her response is as follows:

  The number of public limited companies having established their registered offices in Scotland as a result of commencing trading in each year from 1990 to 1997 is as follows:

  


1990

14



1991

28



1992

13



1993

27



1994

17



1995

23



1996

23



1997

18

Environment

Sarah Boyack (Edinburgh Central) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what reduction in carbon dioxide emissions would be achieved by meeting the UK Biodiversity Action Plan target to restore 75% of recoverable blanket peat bog within the next 10 years.

Ross Finnie: I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-3385 on 27 November 2003. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search ..

Equine Industry

Dr Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will extend the deadline for horse passport applications from 31 December 2003 to 30 June 2004 in line with England and Wales.

Ross Finnie: I announced on 21 November that 30 June 2004 is now the intended deadline for all equine owners to obtain passports for their animals.

Health

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2278 by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 September 2003, how many physiotherapists are employed in each NHS board area, expressed also on a per capita basis and as a ratio to the number of people registered as requiring their services.

Malcolm Chisholm: The following table shows the whole time equivalent (WTE) and headcount of physiotherapists and the populations by NHS board area.

  Rates per 100,000 population are also given. These rates should be interpreted with caution as they do not take account of cross-border flows between health boards e.g. patients resident in one health board area may receive their physiotherapy from another health board.

  Information required to show the ratio of physiotherapists to the number of people registered as requiring their services is not centrally available.

  Physiotherapists by NHS Board

  Headcount and Whole Time Equivalent: at 31 March 2003

  Population Estimate at 30 June 2002

  



Physiotherapists


Rate per 100,000 of population



NHS Board

Headcount

WTE

Population

Headcount

WTE



Argyll and Clyde

169

133.9

418,750

40.36

31.99



Ayrshire and Arran

179

145.4

367,060

48.77

39.60



Borders

52

40.6

107,400

48.42

37.84



Dumfries and Galloway

59

46.6

147,310

40.05

31.63



Fife

149

115.4

350,620

42.50

32.91



Forth Valley

114

96.0

279,370

40.81

34.36



Grampian

244

186.1

523,290

46.63

35.57



Greater Glasgow

486

403.4

866,080

56.11

46.58



Highland

103

86.1

208,140

49.49

41.36



Lanarkshire

195

163.5

552,910

35.27

29.57



Lothian

411

338.3

779,100

52.75

43.43



Orkney

10

7.3

19,210

52.06

37.99



Shetland

12

9.0

21,940

54.69

41.02



Tayside

172

138.4

387,420

44.40

35.72



Western Isles

10

9.1

26,200

38.17

34.72



Golden Jubilee National Hospital

8

6.6

N/A

N/A

N/A


Scotland
2,373
1,925.7
5,054,800
46.95
38.10
 

  Source: National Manpower Statistics from payroll, ISD Scotland GRO mid-year population estimates.

Health

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether its policy is that all NHS boards must make available to patients all medicines that have been, or will be, approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium and, if so, whether there will be any exceptions to this policy and how the policy will be implemented.

Malcolm Chisholm: NHS boards are required to take account of advice and evidence from the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) and ensure that recommended medicines are made available to meet clinical need.

  NHS Scotland has been advised of a new strengthened role for SMC and new procedures for ensuring the national implementation of innovative new drugs. Arrangements are being made to place copies of the Health Department letter in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

Maternity Services

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to ensure that a regional planning perspective is taken in all current NHS board consultations and decisions on rationalising maternity services.

Malcolm Chisholm: I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-3775 on 25 November 2003. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search ..

Maternity Services

Mr Stewart Maxwell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2O-614 by Malcolm Chisholm on 9 October 2003, how many new-born babies have been cared for in intensive care units in each year since 1996-97, broken down by NHS board area.

Malcolm Chisholm: The specific information requested is not held centrally.

  The following table shows the number of discharges from neonatal units in Scotland, for years ended 31 March 1997 to 2002 by NHS board area. A neonatal unit is a facility which provides neonatal special care (Special Care Baby Unit) and/or neonatal intensive care for sick babies. It is not possible to separate the information into care types i.e. intensive or special care.

  Number of Babies Discharged from Neonatal Units1 by NHS Board of Residence2 and Financial Year

  


NHS Board of Residence

Financial Year




1996-97

1997-98

1998-99

1999-2000

2000-01

2001-02P



Argyll and Clyde

943

968

832

842

763

743



Ayrshire and Arran

534

508

548

489

467

429



Borders

262

218

225

250

217

156



Dumfries and Galloway

263

309

277

295

288

218



Fife

463

433

460

452

422

426



Forth Valley

408

513

485

497

445

454



Grampian

786

847

851

938

811

809



Greater Glasgow

1,972

1,693

1,588

1,501

1,548

1,236



Highland

250

276

275

301

287

258



Lanarkshire

1,377

1,209

1,364

1,331

1,171

956



Lothian

905

736

696

785

865

867



Tayside

509

545

493

424

392

407



Island3

49

56

62

65

52

53



Total

8,721

8,311

8,156

8,170

7,728

7,012



  Source: SMR11.

  Ref: S2W-4186.

Maternity Services

Mr Stewart Maxwell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2O-614 by Malcolm Chisholm on 9 October 2003, what the average length of stay has been in an intensive care neonatal unit in each year since 1996-97, broken down by NHS board area and reason for admission.

Malcolm Chisholm: A table detailing the number of discharges and the average length of stay in neonatal units in Scotland, for years ended 31 March 1997 to 2002, by NHS board area and reason for admission has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. Number 25644).

National Health Service

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many callers have waited for more than 10 minutes to complete an enquiry to NHS 24.

Malcolm Chisholm: The average total call time to NHS 24 is 11 minutes. This compares well with the benchmark for consultation by GPs which is 10 minutes. Call length is determined by clinical need. Calls which are urgent are dealt with more quickly. Calls that result in self care advice, and patients calling with mental health problems, usually require more time. Calls for health information tend to be shorter in length and on average take 3.5 minutes.

National Health Service

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the average time is for a nurse to obtain information, give advice and complete a call made to NHS 24.

Malcolm Chisholm: Calls to NHS 24 are received by a call-handler to establish whether the caller wants health information or advice on symptoms from a nurse. Thereafter the average time for a nurse to give the caller advice and complete the call is some 8.5 minutes.

National Health Service

Mr Stewart Maxwell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many days of (a) type 1 maximal and (b) type 2 high dependency intensive nursing care have been provided in each NHS board area in each year since 1996-97.

Malcolm Chisholm: The information requested is not available centrally.

People with Disabilities

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to promote the civil rights of disabled people.

Ms Margaret Curran: The Executive is committed to promoting disabled people's rights and tackling discrimination and inequality. Our equality strategy provides a framework for this work across departments.

  The Executive is also using the opportunity provided by the European Year of Disabled People to promote disabled people's rights. We have allocated £200,000 for a programme of activities to celebrate the theme of the year - promoting rights and participation. This has included a major transport conference in September, support for a business start up event in November, activities to raise awareness of disability with young people and arts activities. A 16 page newspaper supplement entitled Promoting Rights and Participation was published in January 2003 in order to highlight disabled people's rights and has been widely distributed since then at a range of events. Copies have been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 26033).

  In addition, to help us to better understand disabled people's needs, we are providing £250,000 to two national grassroots disability organisations, Inclusion Scotland and the Scottish Disability Equality Forum. The funding will allow the organisations to develop the channels and structures for Executive consultation with disabled people in Scotland.

Renewable Energy

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989, what the process for consultation and determining planning consent is for wind farms producing more than 50 megawatts.

Lewis Macdonald: Any proposal to construct or operate an electrical generating station with a generation capacity in excess of 50MW requires consent from Scottish ministers under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989. When consent is granted, ministers also grant deemed planning permission under section 57(2) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) 1997.

  Scottish ministers must consult the relevant local authority, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and may also consult other parties with an interest in the development.

  Applicants are required by statute to publish notices in the local and national press which describes the proposal and advise how representations should be made.

  Under the Electricity Works (Environment Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2000, ministers are required to consider whether a proposal is likely to have a significant effect on the environment. Any section 3 application must be accompanied by an environmental statement.

  In reaching decisions, ministers are guided by the provisions contained in Schedules 8 and 9 of the Electricity Act 1989 and by Executive planning policy as set out in National Planning Policy Guideline 6: Renewable Energy.

  Ministers can grant consent to a proposal as it stands (or with conditions), reject it, or refer it to a public local inquiry.

Scottish Agricultural College

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-3653 by Ross Finnie on 10 November 2003, how many students at each Scottish Agricultural College campus are studying a degree course and, of these, how many are first year students.

Ross Finnie: The information requested is set out in the following table. The information relates to students enrolled on the Scottish Agricultural College's degree programmes as at 28 October 2003

  


Campus
Degree Students (All Years)


Degree Students (Year One Only)


Student Headcount


Full-Time Equivalents

Student Headcount

Full-Time Equivalents



Aberdeen

130

105.5

44

33.5



Ayr

176

173.5

37

34.5



Edinburgh

79

79

7

7



Totals

385

358

88

75

Scottish Criminal Record Office

Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the current average turnaround time is for a criminal history system check by Disclosure Scotland and what measures are in place to improve the service.

Cathy Jamieson: As of Monday, 24 November 2003, the turnaround times for applications processed by Disclosure Scotland was 24 days for standard and enhanced disclosures and 35 days for basic disclosures.

  To improve upon this performance and the overall service, additional staff have been recruited. In addition, manual processes have been reviewed and a new electronic workflow system, which will streamline procedures, is being evaluated for introduction as soon as possible.

Scottish Criminal Record Office

Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Criminal Records Office receives any financial payment for work undertaken on behalf of the Criminal Records Bureau.

Cathy Jamieson: Disclosure Scotland, which is part of the Scottish Criminal Record Office, provides the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) with a service related to applications for enhanced disclosures under Part V of the Police Act 1997. These are applications received by CRB where the applicant has previously resided in Scotland and where a check has to be made with Scottish police to ascertain if there is any non-conviction information that should be disclosed. Disclosure Scotland is paid £5 per application for this service.

Scottish Criminal Record Office

Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the work of Disclosure Scotland has been affected by the undertaking of work for the Criminal Records Bureau by the Scottish Criminal Record Office.

Cathy Jamieson: The work which the Scottish Criminal Record Office undertakes through Disclosure Scotland on behalf of Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) is related to applications for Enhanced Disclosures under Part V of the Police Act 1997. This work is part of Disclosure Scotland's core business and is not having any adverse effect on Disclosure Scotland's performance.

  The CRB is not at present issuing basic disclosures and Disclosure Scotland, at the request of the Department for Transport rather than the CRB, has agreed, as a temporary measure, to accept applications for basic disclosures from airside staff at airports across the UK. These are staff who, for security reasons, require a criminal record check to help assess their suitability for employment airside. The additional volume of applications from this source coupled with increasing volumes from "domestic" sources has had some effect on Disclosure Scotland's turnaround times. The problem is being actively addressed with a view to reducing turnaround times.

Social Work

Bill Butler (Glasgow Anniesland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive within what timescale it is envisaged that there will be a full complement of qualified social workers in post in (a) Glasgow and (b) Scotland.

Euan Robson: No targets have been set for reaching a full complement of qualified social workers for either Glasgow or Scotland, but the position is being carefully monitored through research and via the formal collection of statistics. Demand for social workers remains high and it is accepted that immediate action and longer term workforce planning will be necessary to create a sufficiently large, confident and competent workforce. However, there are more social workers in Scotland now than at any time in the past, a net increase of 51 qualified social workers in the current year, and 25% more graduates entering the workforce this year than last.

  In addition, projected figures on active social work students at the universities shows increased numbers, from 1,803 students in 2004 to 2,006 students in 2008. Many employers are also focusing on generating their own social workers through trainee schemes and through combining active recruitment with effective "grow your own" policies.

Social Work

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to assess accurately the number of children on supervision who are not receiving the service prescribed by the Children's Hearing System.

Euan Robson: The Scottish Executive commissioned research project on home supervision, reported in December 2002, found 22% of the 189 cases examined had no allocated social worker. The detailed findings are at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/cru/ . In addition, Audit Scotland reported in 2002 on children on supervision for reasons which include offending that between 300 and 500 were not receiving the service prescribed. Performance audit clearly plays a valuable role in assessing the effectiveness of youth justice policies and Audit Scotland has undertaken to provide updates. The first update in November 2003 reaffirmed the earlier findings and identified areas for further action by the Scottish Executive and councils. The Scottish Executive has accepted all of the report's recommendations.

Social Work

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish a table showing how many social workers retired in each of the last 12 years and how many retired early.

Euan Robson: This information is not held centrally.

Social Work

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish a table showing how many qualified social workers there were in each of the last 12 years.

Euan Robson: Information prior to 1997 is not held centrally.

  Scottish Local Authority Social Work Services

  Social Workers (WTE) by Year

  


Year

Social Workers (WTE)



1997

3,314



1998

3,297



1999

4,288



2000

3,894



2001

3,873



2002

4,017

Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body

Holyrood Project

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Presiding Officer what the detailed methodology is for allocating space in the new Parliament building (a) between and (b) within the political parties.

Mr George Reid: : There is separate accommodation at Holyrood for the Presiding Officer and the Deputy Presiding Officers in Queensberry House, 18 ministers in towers three and four, and 108 members in the members' block. The provision of accommodation is a matter for the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, but it has agreed to seek the views of the business managers before deciding how the space in the members' block should be allocated. The allocation of rooms within political parties will be a matter for the parties themselves.